Levirate Marriage (1)

Text
According to Deut. 25:5-10 a man whose married brother died without leaving children inherited the widow, and he begot children through her on behalf of his dead brother, a custom known as levirate marriage. The Middle Assyrian laws which were written or compiled around the fourteenth-twelfth centuries describe a similar practice in which a father-in-law can give the wife of a deceased son to another son, if the woman has not yet produced children. Cuneiform law and practice indicate some variations upon the theme throughout the different regions and periods, but in general it is accepted that a form of levirate marriage was practiced in the Near East before the Iron Age.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Deuteronomy 25:5-10

Bibliography

Stephanie Dalley

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